A mix of current students, alumni and various community members attended Wilfrid Laurier University’ third annual Homecoming basketball game at the YMCA on Saturday, November 2, 2024.
The event, where alumni players returned to the court to take on the university’s current student extramural basketball team, is just one of the many festivities that have been taking place to celebrate the campus’ 25th anniversary.
“Today we had our basketball game which was for our students, alumni and community, but we also had a pre-game reception with some of the folks that helped get the campus started 25 years ago,” said Jason Coolman, Laurier’s Vice-president of Advancement and External Relations. “It was great because we had some donors, supporters, and then the MP, MPP and the Mayor, but we also had a bit of a storyboard up on the wall for everyone to see how far we’ve come from having 39 students in one building 25 years ago, to now with 3,000 students, 20 programs and six facilities.”
Cheering the athletes on with foam fingers, inflatable cheering stick clappers and rally towels, spectators showed their support by sporting the school’s colours and shouting words of support for either team as the game got underway.
Both teams came out strong, each scoring points within the first five minutes of the first quarter. By the end of the first half, the score was 28-27 in favour of the alumni.
In between each quarter, Craig Chipps, Laurier’s Manager of Canadian Recruitment and the games’ emcee for the day, organized several activities for the crowd like cheer-off competitions, a sneaker “fashion show” and a game of “Bump” where guests had to make their basket before the person behind them makes their basket.
While the score remained close throughout the second half of the game, it was the alumni team that took the win with a final score of 48-45.
After the game, Alex Packer, a 2015 Laurier graduate who played on the extramural team for all four years of his postsecondary career, said it was great to be back for another alumni game.
“It was fun and it was loud. I always like coming out to play this game every year, and it’s really cool seeing where they play now because it was built after I already left the school so it’s definitely different,” laughed Packer. “ I always have a fun time with everyone here and it’s nice because I get to bring my kids now and they get to watch me play so they just love it, they always ask when the big basketball game is.”
Overall, Coolman said that he was happy with how the game turned out and that it’s a fun event that speaks to the Laurier community as a whole.
“Because it’s homecoming, it gives our current students a reason to come out and cheer for their classmates, but also it gives them a reason to come back and cheer for their friends so I think that makes it fun,” he said. “Both are Brantford teams so everyone here has experienced this campus so I think it really connects them that way too. We’re just happy to have everyone come back together to celebrate and I think it speaks to the spirit of the community that exists here.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
